No Crueler Question
by NeoMiniTails
Summary: Risa "Sakio" Hino just asked Bruce Wayne the cruelest question.


**Author's Note: Thanks for reading this story. Dedicated to Miss Scorp. It's connected to "Messages Hidden In the Dark: A Scorpion's Gift." Both are giftfics for my best online friend. Please enjoy and review.**

 **Since the Sailor Moon manga does not name Rei Hino's parents, I name them myself. I know the live action gives them names, but I mostly base everything off the manga and animes.**

 **Onto the story:**

" _ **Honesty is the cruelest game of all, because not only can you hurt someone - and hurt them to the bone - you can feel self-righteous about it at the same time." - Dave Van Ronk**_

"Huh?" He asked despite having heard her clearly. The question floated in the air, illuminating the darkness that he and her husband had both created, in hopes to not see the truth. It ran off her tongue like a child to candy. Her eyes looked hopeful for the first time in years; it was the face of someone who was one number from winning the lottery, the expression Bruce would've welcomed had it not been for the question.

' _Can I die?'_

There was no such thing as a stupid question, Bruce knew that however that didn't mean that there weren't questions that never should be asked. Sakio just asked one of them.

Her olive skin looked translucent in the light of moon that shined upon her from the window. Bruce couldn't remember if she'd always looked so pale, so once bright, vivacious shining bright eyes looked almost gray in the darkness; he was sure in the light, it would be blacker than the night sky.

"Tono-chan..." She clearly didn't realize she was speaking with Bruce as she referred to him by her husband's name. Sakio never turned, and to be honest, he wasn't sure if she'd see him even if she did. "Do you think Bruce-kun and Rei-chan would understand if I died tonight?"

There was silence. Sweat beaded down Bruce's entire body despite feeling colder than he ever thought possible. Sakio was shaking, but he could tell she was trying to steady herself. They were at the end of the line, and though she said otherwise on the phone to Tonoske and himself, they knew now that there was nothing more they could do.

"I mean, will Bruce ever forgive me?" Her words were soft and full of pain. She was trying to keep from crying. "I-I did every thing I said I would. All the surgeries, all the medications... Everything but I'm still a liar."

He couldn't speak, not as Tonosuke. He wasn't sure if he even knew how to respond as Bruce, er, himself. In the past eight hours since he arrived, he counted her having seven convulsions, five times she threw up blood, three times that she would be blinded by her pain and would scream that it felt like she was burning from the inside. In her sleep, he heard her twice say, "I can't do this anymore." Sakio's skin felt colder than ice, and her lips were blue. Bruce wanted her to fight, to not give up, to not ask a question that he didn't want to answer.

"You're not a liar..." He finally said, but before he could say anything more, she shushed him.

"Yes... I am." She shivered. Sakio turned to him, but it was clear that she didn't see him, barely even heard him. "I promised him that I would be okay, and that I'd never leave him or Rei-chan alone."

"You couldn't have kno-"

"I've always known." There was silence as a smile sat coyly on her face. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she spoke again. "Every time I sat with Rei and spoke about how I want to go shopping with her, every moment that I joked about her future husband and how he has to get my approval first, I knew I would never get to do those things." She laughed for a moment. By the expression on her face, the jolly sound from her mouth caused her pain. Even now, she was lying to herself.

Sakio sat quietly. A lone tear creeping and falling desolately to her pillow, that single tear afraid to be alone seemed scared to go. It probably planned to stay with all her other bottled up tears that she held in for so long.

Ever since they were young, he knew that Risa "Sakio" Hino was different from others; she was his first friend and for years, the only person he allowed to know his true self beyond Alfred.

When they were teens, Sakio moved to Gotham City, wanting to spend more time with Bruce and Alfred, her "two favorite humans in the entire world." At the time, he didn't know the real reason was far more darker than the dream she placed before him. Always laughing, joking, using crude humor, she was a normal teenage girl who wanted to live life to the fullest.

At one time, when Bruce first caught her during one of her episodes, Sakio jokingly said that they should move to Japan because the marrying age was sixteen. Honestly, it wasn't until later on that he realized that she thought he knew she was sick. At the time, he had no idea; his assumption was that she had overworked herself.

After that, she seemed to always joke that they should get married and have a child before it was too late. Always with a smile. The same damn smile she was using now. The lying smile.

The reticent world filled the room. Neither spoke for some time. Bruce blew on his thumb for thirty seconds, trying to calm down, trying to breathe normally. She was staring at him through aphonic stormy eyes. They said nothing but everything at the same time. She was angry and sad but resigned and calm at the same exact time.

"Thank you Tono."

Bruce lifted an eyebrow.

"You knew that I loved Bruce more than anything in the world when I married you, and you understood that I wouldn't be around for long... but you dealt with me."

Tonosuke loved Sakio from day one, Bruce knew that. He often said that if they had a daughter, he'd want her to look just like her mom, and Rei did. When Sakio first started showing symptoms, it was Tono who took care of her though despite his competitive spirit with Bruce, he revealed her sickness to him because he'd rather have her hate him than to lose her.

"When I told you to marry me so that I don't hurt Bruce anymore, you did it... and never once did I ever think of you when I asked that of you. I always bragged about everything Bruce did and how good a person he is."

It was no wonder why Tono became so cold in the past few years. His smile faded and became obsessed with being a good governor that the people could appreciate. Like mother, his daughter had always been more fond of Bruce than of her own father. He probably just wanted someone to acknowledge, to love him, to be there for him.

"Can I die?" She asked again, this time louder than the first time.

Bruce shook his head. He couldn't respond to this question.

"Will they ever forgive me?" She cried out, pulling herself up, shaking all the way. She was so thin, her face sunk in, and her hair thinner than it's ever been. Her eyes were red, and as she moved, every bone creaked. "I love them. They should know that, right?!" She held herself in position, tears fleeing her eyes, no longer enslaved by her lying emotions. "I've fought long and hard, and I love them so much!"

He could see where the doctors poked and prodded her body for blood all over. She coughed and blood shot from her mouth. She coughed again and more blood came out before she started throwing up.

Bruce remembered her saying that all the women in her family suffer the same.

He called for doctors and nurses to come in. They came in and rushed him out. As he looked back, he could see her eyes asking, screaming, begging for the pain to stop.

There was no crueler question than what they were asking him. "Can I die, Bruce?" This time, for sure, she definitely saw him. He could tell by the twinkle in her eyes, the twinkle that Tono had never seen for himself.


End file.
